I feel like the bare winter trees. All the beauty, the life, the fragrance, has been sucked away. Yet as I walk under the tall gray arms of these barren giants that seem to be reaching for You, I can smell life. It penetrates my senses and makes me think of forests and rivers, green and alive with the pulse of spring. Oh, how wonderful it smells! Not a stale lifeless scent, but the sweet fragrance of a “season of rest.” It has all the appearances of death; the adornments of spring flowers, lush green summer leaves and the rainbow of fall colors now stripped away, leaving in their place only a crumbling shadow of what they once were.

Lord, this is Your design. You graciously allow this colorless season to strip away the vestiges of the past. The remnants that were once a beautiful tribute to You, now brown and decaying, are hanging on for dear life. But there is none. The life in these massive trees has served its’ divine purpose for a while ~ giving beauty, fragrance, cool shade from the scorching Georgia sun, and even shelter for the birds and animals. And their beauty grew and transformed from one season to the next until it reached its’ crescendo ~ reds, oranges, purples, rusts ~ now not only fragrance and shade but a rainbow of splendor pointing heavenward saying, “Look ~ our God is Marvelous! He is worthy of our beautiful display of His Glory!” Until… the colors of fall make way for winter and it is time for all of nature to rest. And so the naked giants sleep; their beautiful rainbow of autumn leaves now fallen to the ground.

But life is not gone. It hides in a secret place, deep inside the trunk and roots where their life-blood flows strong. You have given all of nature a time of rest. And so it’s gray. It’s cold. But the starkness that looks like death is really a sweet sleep until this season too has fulfilled its purpose and given you glory. And all the while through this cold, dreary interlude, these towering worshipers continue to point to You. Reaching, stretching high into the sky as if to say, “God, please touch me. Fill me with life again.” And Your comforting response is “You are full ~ full of My life. Your colorful adornments are gone for a short time, but still life flows in you. Listen. Can’t you hear the constant rush within your branches? Do you not feel the flow of life holding you fast in your place, surging down, down to your roots? It’s winter ~ a time for rest ~ now I will nourish you to your very core.”

And soon the trees will be ready to push forth into the next season of life ~ strong and sure and ready for the storms of spring. Nourishment, silence, rest ~ but can you smell it? It’s the sweet fragrance of LIFE ~ real life deep within that cannot be frozen by the cold or shaken by storms. Life that brings forth the beauty of a new season, new growth, new color, new fragrance pouring out from the branches as if to say, “Ha! You thought you could freeze out my beauty and suck away my life. But no! I am stronger than ever before. The cold of winter has not destroyed my life and beauty because the Creator has poured His own life-blood into me.” Now, even more beautiful, more abundant than in seasons past, these soaring displays of God’s creativity and greatness burst forth with color, fragrance, and the sweet smell of new life. Their gray death-like sleep simply a much-needed rest, so in the next season of life, they will be even stronger ~ holding up branches filled to overflowing with the beauty and essence that gives glory to our God Most High.

I knew as I shivered in the cold air that day ~ smelling the sweet fragrance of the earth and trees ~ that God had spoken directly to my heart. He had filled my being with a lesson from the trees that met my very real need. Like those cold ‘dead’ trees, I was once filled with life, with joy and worship that overflowed like the leaves and flowers of spring weighing down the branches of even the largest of trees. But God had chosen to give me a season of rest. I who had been the teacher, the servant, the wife, the mother, the manager, the giving friend, needed to be nourished from deep within. I needed this respite, even though it looked and felt so much like death. God was using this uncomfortable time to push His life deep down to my roots.

As I walked back through the stark wind-swept trees, I could smell it. Life. It was still flowing deep within those trees just as it was in me, giving me everything I needed for my next season of life, strengthening me for the next storm. Can you smell it? Close your eyes and breathe in the fragrance ~ there is life even in the coldest of winters ~ this may just be your season of rest.